‘Regional Experts’ Not Just Missing from Media

Elsewhere on the CJR site today, Michael Massing concludes his take-down of the latest Iran-related coverage with a call for the media to pay more attention to “regional experts” like March Lynch of Foreign Policy and George Washington University.

It’s a good point, but perhaps one that’s not limited to the media. As Spencer Ackerman has noted with respect to a different foreign policy issue, the advisors on the McChrystal strategy review in Afghanistan were (well-respected) security experts, but not experts on Afghanistan itself. As much as we like to think of the press as independent, if that’s the pattern the government sets, how surprising is it to see much of the media follow suit?

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Greg Marx is an associate editor at CJR. Follow him on Twitter @gregamarx.

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